9356

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9356
• Author: Wigington, R.
• Title: Water Right Marketing Strategies to Protect Instream Flows in Colorado.
• USFW Year: 1990.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

City of Boulder has intensively developed in recent years. The
City is now very close to an agreement with the Conservation
Board under which the City would contribute a number of senior
water rights for instream use which, along with the Berkeley
Ditch right, would bring the instream flows through town up to 15
cfs. The agreement is more complicated than the Berkeley Ditch
agreement, and will give the City the initial responsibility for
calling the contributed water rights for instream use as an agent
of the Conservation Board.8 The City's contributed water rights
will also complement the Conservation Board's original
appropriation for 15 cfs in the urban reaches of Boulder Creek.
The Boulder Creek agreement will be a good example of how
municipalities can cooperate with the Conservation Board and
still have a meaningful and active role in the management of
instream water rights inside their boundaries.
III. Natural Lake Water Rights for the Mexican Cut Preserve.
The natural lake water rights at the Conservancy's Mexican
Cut Preserve near the headwaters of the Crystal River is an
example of a fairly unique contractual arrangement with the
Conservation Board which preceded S.B. 91 and S.B. 212. The
Mexican Cut Preserve consists of a number of mining claims
8 A very recent draft of this proposed agreement is
discussed by Bill McDonald in his March 15, 1990 memorandum to
the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
8